Tom Kha Gai soup: So easy!

Is there a soup as interesting and flavorful as Thai Tom Kha Gai? It's a marvelous soup of coconut milk, lemongrass, and galangal with chicken.  Sour, pungent, sweet and smooth, it gives your tastebuds a real workout.

It's my sister's favorite soup so I decided to master it. Ha! With the right ingredients assembled, it took longer to make jasmine rice than the soup.

All Hail Uwajimaya grocery store for the great selection of super fresh produce. I picked up more galangal, lemongrass, and kaffir leaves than I needed for one batch  so I made and froze tom kha soup "kits." Individually wrapped chunks of galangal, segments of lemongrass and a couple of kaffir leaves. Now I can have Tom Kha anytime.

The soup came together in less than 20 minutes.

Tom Kha Gai soup adapted from importfoods.com

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

4 or 5 kaffir lime leaves, rib removed, torn in half

4 or 5 two-inch pieces fresh lemongrass bruised with a quick pounding by the back of a knife

1 inch cube (or a bit more) galangal, sliced into coins the thickness of a quarter

4 Tbsp fish sauce (Tiparos Thai fish sauce)

2 or 3 Tbsp lime juice (the juice of 1 1/2 limes) (divided use) plus lime segments as garnish

6 oz raw chicken breast cut into smallish bite sized pieces (about one large breast)*

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

1 or 2 small red Thai chili peppers, slightly crushed (to taste)

5 ea mushrooms, sliced

8 or 9 cilantro leaves as garnish

(optional: a few drops of chili oil to garnish)

Heat the stock, add the lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, and half the lime juice. Stir thoroughly, bring to a boil. Add the chicken, mushrooms and coconut milk, then the chile peppers. Bring back to a boil Lower the heat and simmer for two or three minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Add remaining lime juice. Garnish with chili oil and cilantro.
Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Note: The main flavorings of Tom Kha soup; kaffir leaf, galangal, and lemongrass are inedible. I prefer to leave it in the soup so it continues to provide flavor as one eats, but warn your guests not to eat it.

About veggies in the soup. I’ve had tom kha with chunks of tomato in it. Delicious. Add 1 or 2 chopped tomatoes with the chicken and mushrooms.

*I’ve also used salmon in place of chicken. 

One final note, the site importfoods.com has a series of informational/instructional videos of Thai street vendors. Most of them are quite good but the 'roasted corn vendor' video is soooo funny. The commentator stalls for time while the vendor pulls corn off of the grill and places it in a plastic bag. It's like watching paint dry or grass grow.

Bon Apetite!